shareverwonder:
Bummer.
Just out of curiosity though, did you LET him attack you three times, or did you try to correct his behavior each time?
I think it's safe to say that you're not quite back to square one though....he's probably at least more used to you now, than he was before, so it should be at least a little bit easier.
Tartannik:
That's what this thread is for, although as I said, I may not be able to answer every one so quickly.
First thing: JimBob is one handsome rooster, and your chickens have some awesome names!
Just had to say that. lol
And secondly, I think that your response was one of several 'appropriate' responses. I've had one or two roosters like this who are overly protective of the hens, but they also make GREAT roosters. Let's start by just trying to analyze his actions to better understand the whole scope of the situation, instead of me just recommending something to you. This is probably going to get long and boring though, and may be stuff you already know....just a warning.
I just want to throw some thoughts out there too, so just skip to the end if you'd rather not hear my long-windedness.
Well obviously, roosters will come running like JimBob did when a hen is in distress: either when she's getting hurt, or being bred by another rooster (who is hurting her or not). Of course, the alpha rooster doesn't like either of these things at all (although you may call him the beta rooster if you are the lead rooster....still, they seem to see humans differently, since we aren't always around, shepherding hens, crowing, and such. So the alpha
chicken rooster then. But that is a whole new subject on it's own). If the hen is getting hurt, roosters do seem to have some kind of protective instinct and will rush to the hen's aid. Also, the so called "egg-song" is actually what is widely thought by many experts, chicken keepers, and me, from personal observation, to actually be a type of warning call, scaring away predators, leading them away from the nest, or even scoping out a nesting site (you'll notice that they don't always do this, and usually they will do it much more if they are flighty or they deem a nest site to be more dangerous). You'll notice that the rooster(s) will often be the first and sometimes the only ones to join in with the hens. They "badawk!" even if they aren't coming out of a nest of course: the 'bawking' is used to warn of anything suspicious: the faster and more frequent the call, the more dangerous it's deemed. They also warn of hawks and suspicious things, occasionally going so far as to attack those threats. And, of course, when another rooster is breeding, sometimes even 'lower' roosters will come in and try to stop it, while the alpha rooster will often attack the interloper. The other thing the rooster 'protects' the hens from is, of course, other roosters, although you could say that he's just protecting his genes in those cases, not the hen. But 'lower' roosters will often be much less gentle than the lead rooster, probably because they're usually less experienced, they're sometimes overeager, and they're sneaking around behind the lead rooster. The lead rooster will attack any other rooster that tries to breed with 'his' hens even if he isn't hurting them though, although the squawking just makes the hen easier to find. I was thinking that maybe the hen will purposely squawk loudly when she is being bred by a lower ranking rooster, usually against her will, not always because she's getting hurt, but because she actually
wants to lead rooster to intercept the lower ranking rooster (it would probably just be instinct, so I doubt she's really thinking about it in that way). As I said, sometimes the lower ranking roosters will intercept a higher ranking rooster too, and will often earn a big peck for it.
ANYWAYS, I don't think JimBob sees you as a lower ranking rooster, since he does seem to respect you since he's never attacked you or your kids (you tell me: does he respect you?). As I mentioned before, even if you are the lead rooster, they do seem to see humans in a different sort of category, since we aren't always there. You're 'higher' than him, but you don't spend all of your time with the hens, you don't chase him off when he's showing them food, breeding, or partaking in other 'alpha rooster duties'. So he sees you as a superior, but he also sees the hens as 'his'. He doesn't like it when you pick them up, probably either because he thinks you're hurting them or breeding with them. I had a very protective, old, experienced rooster who was absolutely wonderful and amazing. He actually did seem to be traumatized when one of the hens got taken away by a hawk, and didn't eat for days! May have been that he was just scared of the hawk, but the point is, he really did seem to care about the hens, and he HATED it when I would make them squawk even a tiny bit. He trusted me enough to be really tame, but he didn't trust me with the hens. He knew that I was 'dominant' towards him, and never tried to attack me otherwise. When I picked up a hen though, he would come peck my foot and sometimes jump at me if I didn't stop, but all in a hesitant way, because he knew I was perfectly capable of hurting him. Sometimes I would just chase him away like you did, when he was getting annoying, but most of the time, I would put the hen on the ground, still holding her, and assure him that I wasn't hurting her. Many times, I would just let the hen go, then catch him. Or, I would catch him while still holding the hen. He was not the kind of rooster that would just become unstable and start attacking me because of that, he was just trying to protect his hens (or his genes), so I certainly didn't get mad at him for it, but I also didn't let him attack me.
I would recommend simply trying one of those things....putting the hen down and showing her to him, picking him up, etc.
As for you being hesitant about picking him up....I'm not huge person or anything myself, but I guess it's all in the technique.....If you do it right, he's not going to be able to hurt you. As I said though, you don't HAVE to pick him up: you can actually keep doing what you were doing.....it'll probably make him respect you more in a way, although it could actually make him scared of you.
I would just say do that, try to pick him up, or put the hen down by him, still holding her. Then, after he's seen the hen isn't getting tortured, push him away if you want.
I agree that it was funny - erm, I mean not good, that he pecked her finger, and that's just one of those behaviors that needs to be corrected.
Well, sorry about the way overly long answer.....I just wanted to write that down somewhere. lol
Hope it helps.....I always feel like I left something out.
There are some things that are just so much easier to show than to write......let me know if it works, and if it doesn't, I'll try to assess the situation more and come up with a different solution.
GentlewoodFarms:
I'm so glad!!
Quote from GentlewoodFarms:
I'm new to chickens, but not new to livestock. I raised a young stallion from a baby and showed him on the appaloosa circuit, so I sort of looked at my rooster the same way. His job is "male" and he needs to be allowed to BE male or he can't do his job properly. Respect for him, but expecting respect back the other direction, and more respect on his end for me than on my end for him....but it's a partnership more than a dominating role.
